In photos: Israel evicts Palestinian family, hands over home to settlers

Feb. 17, 2019 2:54 P.M. (Updated: Feb. 21, 2019 2:38 P.M.)

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces and police evicted a Palestinian family, on Sunday, from their home in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the home was built on land that allegedly belongs to Israeli settlers.

According to local sources, Israeli forces and police physically assaulted and forcibly evicted Hatem Abu Assab along with his family from their home in the Old City.

Sources said that the Abu Assab family have been living in the stone-made home over 65 years, however, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that they did not own the plot of land on which their home was built upon and hence ruled for their eviction.

The court ruled that the home belonged to Israeli groups under the “Absentee Property Law,” although the lawyer of the Abu Assab family had obtained a court ruling to postpone the eviction until the end of February.

Riania watched as Israeli settlers entered her home while soldiers assaulted her and held her back, and she said “Israeli forces raided my home with no prior notice. We thought they came to deliver a new notice regarding our home, but to our surprise, we were given little time to abandon our home.”

Rania added that Israeli forces and police physically assaulted her family, particularly her husband and son, and detained them.

It is noteworthy that the Abu Assab family lived in the home for three generations since 1952.